Petzl MyoBelt / Myo XP 2008 - Vivisection.

The good old Myo XP. Refreshed version for the 2008 by led the exchange and change of colors. Reliability, very good quality, light weight, very easy battery replacement. Many advantages for someone who needs a top quality headlamp for outdoor use.

Everything that You would like to know, bout they wont tell you in the shop ;-).

One of the biggest outdoor makers finally wake up and put on the market refreshed version of the well known Myo XP / Myobelt XP.

Some marketing crapp:

200% brighter

85 lumens on high and even 150 in boost mode

good looking grey-black design

powered by "AA x 3 (1,2V-1,5V)"

3 color battery charge indicator (green->yellow->red)

On the leaflet inside the blister there is some strange issue : in the High mode the headlamp on the dedicated 6 cell battery pack 3400mAh should work 50 hours and on the 3 Alkaline Batteries 80 hours !!!

It looks almost the same as the old one, excluding the color, but I think that any flashaholic will recognize SSC P4 emitter :-).

Inside, it looks the same as the old one…

In old XP’s Petzl was grudging and many times they put S-bin Luxeons instead T-bin or better. This time, inside the headlamp is original U-bin SSC P4 star – USXPI, yes they can be a bit more demanding and chose lower Vf version USXPH but this will be good too – I was worrying that they will use T-bin SSC :-p.

Inside almost nothing has changed…

When U use 3 alcaline’s from the headlamp package LED will be powered as shown :

USXPI USX0H

BOOST 762,1 mA 3,73v 913,1 mA 3,82v

HIGH 269,7 mA 3,25v 299,2 mA 3,06v

MID 157,9 mA 3,12v 170,3 mA 2,94v

LOW 65,4 mA 2,95v 68,3 mA 2,8v

Now, lets test powering it up from the NiMh’s – it newer was the strong side of this headlamp, but maybe they improve something… 3 slightly used cells – 3,84V without load. In the meantime I switched the star to the USX0H :-D.

I-led V-led V-in

HIGH 194,0 mA 2,97v 3,77v

MID 111,5 mA 2,87v 3,80v

LOW 44,0 mA 2,75v 3,82v

As you can see, everything goes as usual, there is not enough voltage to power the LED – so you cant use the headlamp properly :-(.

New LED, twice much light as from the earlier version, the same price, 3 year guarantee - one of the best value-for money headlamps on the market today. But it still have one weakness from the older model – it don't have good buck/boost driver..

PS.If you have an old MYO you have only to replace the led and you will have a „NEW” Myo 8-).